It’s baaack. Net Neutrality, the rule that requires all internet streams to be treated the same, has been reinstated by a 3-2 vote by the sitting FCC commissioners. The voting went along party lines with the three Democratic commissioners voting in favor of the rule while the two Republicans voted against it.
The Obama-era FCC passed the rules in 2015 to prevent ISPs and mobile carriers from charging more to content streamers for a faster pipeline to the public. It also prevents carriers from blocking the dissemination of text messages whose content they do not agree with.
As an example, Net Neutrality prevents your favorite video streaming service from paying more to an ISP or a wireless provider to obtain a faster stream for the video streamer’s customers. Without Net Neutrality, the internet provider could charge the video streamer more for the faster pipeline and this charge could find its way onto your monthly bill.
When Donald Trump became president in January 2017, the makeup of the FCC automatically shifted to give Republicans the majority vote. Led by Chairman and Trump-appointee Ajit Pai,
the FCC voted 3-2 to end Net Neutrality in June 2018. Several states managed to pass legislation allowing Net Neutrality rules to be enforced, and the whole idea of having internet streams considered a utility service similar to gas became a political football.
The FCC circa 2018 with current chair Jessica Rosenworcel on the left and former chair Ajit Pai on the right
As a side note, during the period when the FCC was accepting public comments about whether it should repeal Net Neutrality in 2018, the FCC blocked a request from
The New York Times for documents that reportedly would have shown that many of the record 21 million public comments received by the FCC about Net Neutrality came from Russia. Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman at the time,
later admitted to the Russian interference.
After eliminating the comments that were believed to have come from Russia, which mostly commented in favor of ending Net Neutrality, it was reported that nearly 100% of the legitimate comments were in favor of keeping Net Neutrality.
Current FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel was a commissioner back in 2018 and was one of the two dissenting votes against ending the net neutrality rules. Rosenworcel said today, “Four years ago the pandemic changed life as we know it. We were told to stay home, hunker down, and live online. It became clear that no matter who you are or where you live, you need broadband to have a fair shot at digital age success. It went from nice-to-have to need-to-have for everyone, everywhere. Broadband is now an essential service. Essential services – the ones we count on in every aspect of modern life – have some basic oversight.”
